My name is Daniel. I was an English teacher in Seoul, South Korea, and now I am a writer who has
published three books including South Korea: Our Story by Daniel Nardini.
Twenty years ago, when I was an English teacher, I did not have to worry too much
about breathing even though Seoul is a huge city with tons of cars and factories around it. This was because
the South Korean government of the time was actually trying to make an effort at cleaning up pollution. This was
also true when I visited the country for the next ten years afterwards from 1997. Today, South Korea faces a
type of deadly pollution that is out of its control. It is fine yellow dust from northern China. The fine yellow dust
is a product of all the pollution coming from that country as a result of the factories and industries that pour
all of this crap into the air and it blows towards the Korean peninsula. But can I blame the Chinese people
for this pollution mess? No. The Chinese government, which is responsible for the pollution that blows to
the Korean peninsula, is the one responsible. It is seriously damaging the health of ordinary Korean and
Chinese citizens, and doing damage to private as well as public property in South Korea. One South
Korean environmental group has gone to court to try and make the South Korean government deal with the
situation with the Chinese government. I am not sure it will work. I do understand the desperation; after all
it is the lives of so many millions of Koreans---north or south---who are being affected by this as well as
the lives of tens of millions of Chinese. This is a man-made degradation of the environment that has to be
stopped!